PR Pandian, the president of Tamil Nadu Federation of All Farmers' Association, who was on his way to Parandur to meet the villagers protesting against the proposed airport, was detained by Kancheepuram police on Sunday, September 4. The association's Chennai zonal president VK Duraisamy and Saidai Shiva, who were travelling with him, were also detained by the police. The trio on Sunday had gone to Eganpuram village — one of the villages earmarked for Chennai's second airport — to meet the farmers to understand the situation and hold a consultation with them.
Residents of 13 villages have been protesting the plan to build a second airport at Parandur. While a clear map of the airport has not been drafted yet, the villagers are not ready to give up their agricultural land for the project. Security arrangements have been tightened across the 13 villages and police patrolling has been increased with the fear of protests looming. Politicians and social activists have frequented these villages over the past couple of weeks, to meet the people to listen to their grievances.
PR Pandian told TNM that they informed the police via an online application that they will be visiting Parandur. “However, we were detained by the Kancheepuram police personnel when we were about 2 kilometres away from Eganapuram village," Pandian told TNM.
He alleged that the police manhandled them and prevented them from entering Parandur, and detained them.
"People in Parandur have been isolated from the rest of the world. What the Tamil Nadu government is doing now is illegally trying to grab the land from the villagers. Our motivation is not to instigate the villagers but to listen to them. But the police manhandled us. They pulled us out of our car and harassed us when we said we would like to leave the place. But they took us to the police station which is located 20 km away from Eganapuram village. In the past 10 years, I have been a part of many protests but never got detained and treated poorly like this," PR Pandian added. According to him, police officials detained the trio around 3 pm on Sunday and released them by 7.30 on the same evening.
Watch: Chennai second airport: Security stepped up at Parandur
To avoid any untoward incidents, mass gatherings, and protests, security has been beefed up in the 13 villages, and at all the entry points to these villages. Police officials are monitoring every person who is visiting these villages.
In the past ten days, this is the third time that the police have detained activists and politicians who tried to enter Parandur village to meet the residents. To mitigate large gatherings and the protests against the proposed airport, Kancheepuram district police invoked Section 30(2) of the Police Act from August 24 to the next 15 days. (Under this law, one requires permission from the police to organise any gatherings or hold a protest.)
It is to be noted that police, on August 28, Kancheepuram police detained two activists Palaniappan and Gunasekhara Dharmaraja, belonging to Movement Against 8-Lane Way — that had protested against the Salem-Chennai expressway project announced by the AIADMK government — when they tried to enter Kancheepuram. On August 30, police detained as many as 50 Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) cadres and took them into preventive custody after they tried to enter Parandur.